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Gillard on charm offensive to win back the west

Updated
Mon 4 Mar 2013, 9:39 AM AEDT

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Abbott, Gillard scramble for vital western Sydney votes (Image: AAP)

ABC News

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has kicked off her five-day visit to Western Sydney, telling the Labor party faithful that the region's citizens should not be regarded as second-rate, and deserve a fairer share of what they earn.

During a key-note speech at the University of Western Sydney in Parramatta last night, Ms Gillard told the audience that her experience representing the people of Melbourne's west meant she understood first-hand western Sydney's yearning for respect and recognition.

More than 2 million people live in Sydney's western suburbs, making it a battleground Labor cannot afford to lose at September's federal election.

But the Prime Minister will not have the area all to herself today - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is also in the western suburbs spruiking his own plans to wrest seats from Labor in the forthcoming election.

Ms Gillard used last night's speech to outline a five-point plan for the nation, saying jobs would be her top priority.

"We won't promise the sun, the moon and the stars. We won't fill every pothole or catch every crook," she told the crowd.

"But I am determined to deliver five things to make your life easier and improve your future. We will support your job and put Aussie workers first.

We won't promise the sun, the moon and the stars. We won't fill every pothole or catch every crook.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard

"Jobs; infrastructure including the NBN; a world-leading education for our children; insurance for disability and better health care; challenges for modern families and modern society understood and acted on - this is my plan for you; this is my plan for the nation."

Ms Gillard's biggest focus was on employment, saying the people of western Sydney had the natural advantages to capitalise on opportunities in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region.

More than a third of people living in western Sydney were born overseas.

"This is the most socially and ethnically diverse region in the nation, in a century when we must know the languages and cultures of our customers and competitors like never before. So let's go and get that work, seize that opportunity, create those jobs," she said.

"Being from the west should never be viewed as second rate. In this region, your fierce sense of pride in your home and its achievements should engender recognition and respect."

$1b for Connex

This morning Ms Gillard is offering to spend at least $1 billion to start work on Sydney's West Connex motorway - but has placed a number of conditions on the spending.

In a speech later today Ms Gillard will say the $13 billion motorway must extend to the CBD, include a freight link to Botany Bay, and guarantee that the existing M4 remains toll free.

The state government has committed to building the motorway but early plans so far do not include a link to Botany Bay.

The road is intended to swing past the airport and the Premier has said it will have to be funded by tolls. The Federal Opposition is also promising funding for the West Connex.

The Prime Minister is spending much of the next five days in the city's west and has booked into a local hotel to avoid the commute.

Western Sydney is home to five marginal Labor seats - and another five normally considered safe may suffer double-digit swings at the September 14 federal election, if recent opinion polling results are any guide.

At the weekend a survey of 2,550 voters published in Fairfax newspapers showed four Labor seats in western Sydney could fall to the Coalition in September's federal election.

McMahon, Werriwa, Chifley and Blaxland would all be lost if an election were held now, the poll predicted.

Police taskforce

She said the taskforce has been assembled at the request of the Australian Federal Police, and will include 70 officers.

Under the plan, there will be more information sharing between police, the tax office and Centrelink, and a stronger focus on Customs.

Police will also work with international organisations like the FBI and Interpol to investigate the activities of Australian gangs overseas.

Ms Gillard highlighted the plan during her speech at the University of Western Sydney.

She said there were more than 130 shootings in Sydney last year, but noted the problem was not isolated to Australia's largest city.

"Victorian police recorded a 10 per cent rise in the use of firearms in robberies through 2012, and there were 14 shootings in South Australia in just the first five weeks of this year," she said.

"I make no apology for saying this is vital business, not when a nine-year-old boy in Bankstown can find bullet casings fired into the bedroom he shares with his mother and three other children, not when the industrial estates in my own community in Melbourne's west have become bikie battlegrounds."